Contents: In New Year’s address, Taiwan’s president responds to military threats from China; Did Taiwan’s president say that Taiwan is ‘an independent, sovereign country’?; Taiwan president’s planned US visit angers China even more

The Chinese Foreign Ministry and the nation’s state-run media have condemned Congress’s approval of new high-level military talks between the United States and Taiwan. The rebuke follows a month of vocal dismay in Beijing over President-elect Donald Trump’s questioning of the “One China” policy, which denies Taiwan’s sovereignty.

Taiwan is organizing a Western Hemisphere visit for President Tsai Ing-wen and hinting at a quick stop in the United States, appearing to alarm Chinese officials already concerned that Tsai has inspired too much of a positive response from the incoming Trump administration.

“It is lawful, reasonable and fair, and happened as in the past according to plan,” the Chinese air force said in a statement late last week regarding military exercises over waters near Taiwan, alarming the Taiwanese government following heavy criticism from Beijing of Taipei’s embrace of American President-elect Donald Trump.

The Chinese state propaganda outlet Global Times is urging China’s military to amass more nuclear weapons in response to Donald Trump’s election to the American presidency, after a week of sharply worded editorials predicting a war if Trump confronts the nation’s communist government.

The Wall Street Journal revealed on Monday that a key player in arranging the controversial phone call between President-elect Donald Trump and Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen was none other than former Senator and 1996 presidential candidate Bob Dole.

President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to take a courtesy call from Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen last week has alarmed many in American mainstream media, who argue that acknowledging Tsai as a fellow head of state unnecessarily strains relations with communist China.

Following rumors that the government of China is considering establishing an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) over disputed territories in the South China Sea, Taiwan’s new defense minister confirmed the island would not respect such a zone if Beijing attempts to impose it.

Without mentioning any nations in particular, the Defense Minister of Taiwan, Kao Kuang-chi, told the nation’s legislature that he is concerned with the growing presence of military weapons and facilities in the South China Sea, where Taiwan makes multiple territorial claims.

Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou visited the largest island in the Spratly Archipelago Thursday, in a move the United States described as “extremely unhelpful” in the context of a larger territorial dispute in the South China Sea.

The Chinese government has advised international media not to “over-interpret” the fact that Taiwan has staged a number of military drills off the coast of China, on the Taiwanese island of Kinmen, though the nation’s generals warn any move towards independence will mean war.

Tsai Ing-wen tallied up 56 percent of the vote to become Taiwan’s first female president on Saturday. Her election also marks the end of eight years in power for the Kuomintang Party, which was much more favorably aligned with China than Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party.